I slowly turn around. Standing there are the lightwoods, Jace, and Simon. Right away Izzy rushes up to hug me. There is so much force in that hug that I almost fell down.

"By the Angel, Clary! Why did you leave? You left all of us! Jace was so brokenhearted he didn't leave his room for two months. Alec barely talked to anybody. Simon stopped coming to the institute for a while." While Izzy was ranting I eyed Jace suspiciously. I left all of them letters. And what did she mean by Jace never left his room?

"Izzy, give her room to breathe," says Alec. Once she lets go he gives me a gentle hug. I lean into him. He whispers, "Jace got rid of the letters. He was suspicious that you didn't write me one but he thinks you probably forgot. I kept mine hidden. We need to talk."

I look around to see if anyone is close enough to hear. No. I give a brief nod against him so nobody could see but he could feel it. He breaks away and then Simon comes up.

"You scared me when you left. No letter, no text, no nothing. You didn't even leave anything."

"I'm sorry," I say. "I wanted to leave right away. I was in a rush. I did not leave anything because I knew you would try to track me."

We separate. "I guess Jace would want to talk with you.

He walks back to stand with Izzy and I smile. It is good that they are still together. But, that smile is wiped off immediately when Jace steps forward for a hug. When I step back he walks towards me and I back up into Thomas. He puts his arms around me and gives Jace the death stare.

"Clary," he starts but gets cut off.

"We should probably get settled. Clary is going to stay with us at the Stormheart house, so we should probably get going." I look at him and he smiles.

"Bye guys. Talk to you soon."

-line break-

Once we get to the house, I head up to Thomas's room and he follows. He closes the door behind him and turns to me, sitting on the bed.

"I am going to assume that last guy advancing towards you was Jace." I silently nod, staring at the floor. "How dare he think that you would just apologize."

I shrug. "I don't know what he was thinking." I look up at him. "But I am thankful that you were there." He sits next to me and puts his arm around me.

"I will always be there. You should know that by now. And for some crazy reason that I'm not, Angel will." He pauses. "Speaking of Angel, whose room are you staying in? Angel's or mine?"

"Well," I pretend to think. "This is one of the rare occasions that Angel is with her family. I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Yeah, but soon you both will be Parabatai. You shouldn't be separated that much."

"Which is why we are training in the main training room tomorrow. So she would see me then."

He shakes his head. "I just don't want you getting in trouble with the clave."

"Trust me. This is fine. Sure, we are not as close as normal Parabatais but that is why we are still training. By next year we will be so close you won't get me on my own as much. That is why you should take this opportunity."

He looks like he just came up with something. "Clarissa Morgenstern, will you do me the honor of sharing a room with me in this wonderful house? It can even be the one we are occupying."

I laugh. "Of course Thomas Stormheart. Thank you for the invitation." We both laugh, enjoying the time we have together while it lasts.

-line break-

I have fallen asleep on Thomas's chest, yet I get shaken. I open my eyes to see Thomas staring down at me.

"What is it?" I ask groggily.

"My mom says one of you friends are at the door." Before I could ask he answers the question in my head. "And no, it is not Jace. I asked her for you."

I nod and slowly get up. I walk downstairs to open the door. I take a deep breath and open it to find Alec waiting on the other side.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I said I would talk to you didn't I." When I don't answer he continues. "Is there a place where we could talk privately?"

I nod and lead him away from the Stormheart house. We walk silently for a couple minutes until I lead him to the side of Luke's sister's house.

I turn around a cross my arms, waiting for him to talk.

"Look, I just thought you wanted to know what went on after you left."

I agree. "Yeah. I mean, I have always wondered. Who wouldn't?"

"Well, first Jace was hurt, but not as hurt as I would have thought if I didn't know what happened. He didn't date anybody else but I believe that was for Izzy's sake. She would have screamed if he did."

I raise an eyebrow at that and he explained. "She was so hurt that you left. I know you haven't been as close as normal friends are, but she was so upset that she started blaming herself for not being as close friends with you as you were."

"Well, it is not her fault. What about the letters I left everybody?"

"I strongly believe Jace disposed them so nobody could know that it was his doing that made you depart."
I roll my eyes. "Wow, he is so arrogant. He cannot have anybody believing that he is who he really is." I list them out, counting on my fingers. "A cheater, an arrogant warrior, and a terrible brother for lying to you guys, even if you knew he was."

"He is an idiot alright. But, all of us got by if that is what you really want to here."

"Yes, that is. I am going to assume Izzy and Simon are still a thing?" I question. He nods and I continue. "What about Magnus?"

He hesitates before speaking. "Everybody pushed him into tracking you down but he didn't want to track you because he knew you left for a reason. He wasn't going to betray his Biscuit." He says the last sentence in a kid voice and I smile. Thank goodness he is still on my side. "He is still doing well. We broke up because we knew if we got too attached we would end up heartbroken because of his immortality," he explains.

Immediately I grow sad. I walk forward and put my hand on his shoulder. "Alec, I am so sorry," I manage.

He shrugs. "It was a year ago. He still helped out when he could. As long as it was not about finding you."

"Anything else?" I ask.

"Your mom and Luke. They were broken. Luke had the entire pack out searching for you. Your mom was at the institute almost every day. She almost became a shadowhunter again actually."

"I am surprised." And I truthfully am. She left the shadow world for me and she almost came back for me.

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?'

"What have you been doing? I heard there was a new fierce shadowhunter."

I smile. It took at a while to get that far but I did. "Yeah, that is me. How come you didn't hear my name out of that information?"

"We were not focused on gossip. Now that I think about that we should have. Instead we jumped form institute to institute. The first one we went to was Los Angeles because of Emma."

"That is why I went to London."

"How is London?"

"Great. It is beautiful except for the smog."

"How about the institute?"

"The best part. It is bigger than New York's. Nicolette is in charge and she is very nice. Lucas and Nathan can make anybody laugh. Katherine handles the vampires. It is reassuring knowing that she is my friend. Angel is my best friend there and we are training to become Parabatai."

He stops me there. "Parabatai? Do you know how much of a commitment that is? That is something you cannot end."

"I know that. We are friends. We will do just fine."

"Yeah, and what if you move. What if you come back to New York?"

Wait, what? He doesn't really mean that does he? "What are you talking about? Why would I go back to New York?"

He runs his hand through his hair. "Because we miss you. Yeah, Jace is a jerk and I doubt you would want to live in the same building as him but forget about him. You can come back to your family."

"This is my family. I am not leaving them. I refuse to leave them. I have brothers and friends and a boyfriend."

"And let me guess. You and your boyfriend refuse to let each other out of your sight," he says, his voice rising.

"Yes!" I shout. "You are correct. Being a Parabatai is a commitment. One I have to make."

"Simon is your best friend! Izzy wants to be your best friend! What about them?"

"You can't mean any of this. You guys have done just fine without me."

"We haven't. I know I said we haven't but I can tell everybody has a wall around them. Izzy is not as interactive as she normally is. Simon became a shadowhunter but all of his strikes are aggressive, as if it is to get anger out."

"And you? You seem just fine."

Instead of answering he crashes his lips down on mine.

Curve ball. Malec shippers I am so sorry but I told you guys that there would be plot twists. It is not like I don't ship Malec. I do but I wanted to experiment. Reviewers, I love you but you are making my life so complicated. One of you wants Clary to end up with Jace while another wants Thomas. Ahhhhhh! You are making this hard on me.

I will be gone for more than a week for camping so, don't expect an update anytime soon.